Tito Jackson, founding member of the Jackson 5, dies at age 70

Tito Jackson, who was a founding member of the iconic family group The Jackson 5 along with brothers Michael, Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon, died on Sunday at the age of 70.

News of the death was first reported by Entertainment Tonight, which said word of Tito's death came from Steve Manning, a longtime friend and associate of the Jackson family. Manning told ET that he believes Tito suffered a heart attack while driving on a road trip, adding that the cause of death was officially undetermined. People magazine confirmed the news with Siggy Jackson, Tito's nephew.

He has recently been performing with brothers Marlon and Jackie under The Jacksons' revival, including a date in England as recently as a week ago. An LA audience saw Jackson perform a set at the Full in Love festival in Hollywood Park on August 31st. Tito has recorded and performed many shows over the past 20 years under his own banner or as a blues guitarist with B.B. King. Blues band.

Tito Jackson played guitar, sang and, of course, danced in homes around the world as the Jackson 5 became an international sensation in the late '60s and early '70s, a string of smash hits that included four No. 1 hits: 1969's “I Want You Back” and in 1970 “ABC”, “The Love You Save” and “I'll Be There”. Released in 1974, “Dancing Machine” did about the same, peaking at No. 2. During this initial burst of fame, young Michael was the primary center of attention, but the chemistry and choreography of the lesser-known brothers was an essential part of their success as top acts on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other TV variety series.

After a label switch from Motown to Epic, and a name change from The Jackson 5 to The Jacksons—and the addition of Randy to the fold—the group also made it into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Enjoy Yourself.” “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” in 1976, 1979 and finally, in 1984, “State of Shock”, a collaboration with Mick Jagger that was more of a Michael solo project than a true group effort. The group's Victory Tour hit stadiums in '84, giving the brothers a final shot at superstardom after the ascension of “Thriller” made it clear that Michael's full-time future was as a solo act. Michael left Jackson at the end of that tour, taking most of the attention with him, but various shifts in the family group continued to perform and record intermittently.

Tito was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 along with the rest of the Jackson 5. Michael, who died in 2009, was the only member of the original lineup of five brothers to predecease Tito.

Tito knew that, as one of the less prominent members of the family combo, his name was sometimes used as a punchline. “I've always been the quietest member of the group, so people make jokes about me,” he said in a 2018 interview with Jitney. “One of my favorite basketball players, Charles Barkley, said, 'If Tito hadn't been in the Jackson 5, would we have missed him?' That hit my heart. It crushed me.”

Initially, Tito's guitar playing was limited to The Jackson 5's live shows, as Motown did not allow the brothers to write or play during their initial run on Smash. But Tito began adding his guitar parts to their recordings after the brothers parted ways with Motown and signed with Epic in the mid-'70s.

Tito was the last sibling from the original lineup to release a solo album – a moment that didn't come until 2016, during which he finally released his own debut record, “Tito Time”. It demonstrates his interest in the blues, the form Tito returned to and emphasized in the latter part of his life.

“I got married at 18. I wanted to be close to my three sons, so I didn't pursue a solo career,” Tito said, explaining his lack of discography to Jitney. “But this record ('Tito Time'), the first single I did with Big Daddy Kane ('Get It Baby') did pretty well. The Alabama Band plays it at halftime during their football games. It was fun to watch the band and cheerleaders dance.”

In 2021, Tito released another blues-oriented album, “Under Your Spell”, and toured behind it. Those recordings included guests such as Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Joe Bonamassa and his brother Marlon.

He told Boise Beat in an interview at the time that the Jackson 5's blues origins were under-publicized, noting that he “started playing guitar and playing blues stuff before the brothers started singing as a group. When we were doing the dishes with our mom. We were a bit consistent with him when we were washing up. As far as a band, the Jackson 5 or the three of us, we didn't organize it at the time. My dad and my uncle would come and jam with them.

“That's basically how we started The Jackson 5; We would play a lot of blues sets before going into the Motown sound. We'll include about five or six blues numbers every time we do a show. Once we got to Motown, we didn't do the blues anymore because we started making all these records and our audience wasn't a blues audience, so we wrote our blues songs. We didn't have that much, we used to cover other artist's songs. The only other time I got to play the blues was point and point (if) there was an accident on stage (and) one of the other brothers was playing when the microphones went out. He shouted, 'Tito, play some blues!' It rarely happened, but it happened a few times.”

Born on October 15, 1953 in Gary, Indiana, Tito was the third child of Joe and Catherine Jackson. He started playing guitar at age 10, and after his father caught him fooling around with one of his guitars one day, Joe bought him one of his own.

Tito encouraged his own three sons to go into business. Taj, Terrill and TJ, his sons with wife Delores “Dee Dee” Jackson, formed the group 3T with their father as their manager. 3T released a debut album, “Brotherhood”, co-produced by Michael Jackson and released through his MJJ Music label imprint, which was certified gold in several countries, including the UK, 3T's subsequent albums were released independently in 2004 and 2015. .

Tito explained his own quiet return to music in a cover-story interview with Blues Blast magazine in 2021.

“I decided to take a break after the victory tour, but the break was so long, I couldn't take it anymore! I wanted to play some music, and I wanted to be on stage again. I've been playing Jackson 5 stuff practically my whole life, but the blues was the main music in my family. I just wanted to JamBut I couldn't get any professional to do this kind of thing.

“I was living in Oxnard, California at the time. It's not a huge city like LA so I started a little blues band with some friends of mine. Music was their secondary job though… guys who played drums on weekends and worked regular jobs during the week. I could only do so much with these guys because I didn't want to pull them out of their jobs and take away all the benefits they've been building for 15-20 years.” He said that he finally recorded his first album 11 years ago. Along the way, played mostly weddings and church benefits for a while before making enough of a name as a blues musician to get gigs in Japan and France.

Tito told the publication that he's torn between R&B and blues, so he first made the album “Tito Time” with more of an emphasis on Jackson's classic style — including collaborations with Big Daddy Kane. “I said I could always play the blues because the blues is a music that really has no age. The older you are, perhaps, the more acceptable it is. But I decided: 'I'll do this “Jackson” album first.' … But in the back of my mind, I wanted to do a blues album,” which turned out to be her second and final single release, “Under Your Spell.” “My love really sits with that genre of music.”

Tito Jackson also served as a judge on the BBC celebrity singing competition show “Just the Two of Us” and executive produced the reality series “The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty”, which tracked the brothers' reunion.

Below, watch footage of the Jacksons appearing at LA's Fool in Love Festival just two weeks before Tito's death.